Or lock it and still lose it? With CTC cash I bought a bunch of expensive locks and watched two burly ‘bike thieves’ smash into them within seconds. But it’s possible to make life difficult for professional thieves: there are locking techniques that will make your precious harder to half-inch.

I’d be a poor bike thief. I’m just not meaty enough. To break into a hundred quid chain you need to be beefy but, critically, you must also “want to bust into the lock like your life depended on it.”

This was the advice given to me by Mr X, a very strong, very determined gentleman from Essex (that’s him below) who claimed he could breach expensive locks in seconds. I recently bought a load of such locks - you may be using them on your pride and joy right now – and Mr X was true to his word. He used 42-inch bolt cutters to quickly smash into locks that are meant to be able to withstand determined attacks.

Watched by his partner-in-crime Mr Y (that’s him above), he took up to 42 seconds to breach locks that Sold Secure, a British security products standards body, claim offer sound protection for at least five minutes.

When I tried to cut into the same locks I failed. I pushed, I grimaced, I jumped up and down and used all my might, but not even with the big, heavy bolt cutters could I make much more than a dent in the expensive chain.

However, I was surprised at how easy it was for a weakling like me to breach a different - but still costly - lock using smaller, less conspicuous bolt croppers. The so-called armour over a thick cable was about as easy to cut through as the plastic casing. Even I could get into this lock within ten seconds. According to Sold Secure it should have held me up for five minutes, but by bending it to expose a joint I cut through this luxury lock like the proverbial hot knife through butter.

Am I giving would-be bike thieves tips and tricks to launch their careers? I don’t think so. Pro thieves are already out there using these techniques and their specialist equipment. Wannabe thieves could Google themselves some techniques in seconds.

Locks are there to foil the opportunist thief, and slow down the professional, but nothing (except bikes like this and this, produced for an ad campaign) can offer 100 per cent security.

If your bike is valuable – to a professional thief – the level of protection you’d need to carry to prevent it going walkabouts would make it unrideable.

Yet even with cheaper locks it’s possible to make life difficult for professional thieves. There are locking techniques that will make your bike harder to half inch.

But just as professional thieves can get past house security alarms, no bike lock is impregnable. Channel 4 newsreader and CTC president Jon Snow has had bikes stolen from the ITN building, even when they were well locked in a caged compound with a security camera keeping watch.

Ever been locked out of your house? Call in a locksmith and you’ll be surprised how quickly he can gain entry. Using a slim, specialist tool and some deft jiggling he can bypass what you thought were super-secure locks.

Professional house-breakers use these secret locksmith tools. Common or garden house-breakers use bricks.

A bike lock – even the most expensive in the shop – doesn’t guarantee security, it buys you time. If a bike thief scans your security and sees it will take more than a minute to breach your system, he’ll look for an easier target.

Use one or more of the security tactics below and always lock your bike close to other bikes. It allows the thief to see there are bikes easier to steal than yours. Tough on the poor saps who have their bikes nicked but that’s not your problem.

SECURITY TACTICSThere are measures you can take do to reduce your chances of having your bicycle stolen.

1. Don’t ride a bike.This is a very secure option. If you don’t have a bike, it won’t get stolen. But don’t think this is just a bike problem, even £50k cars are stolen. No amount of security systems guarantees immunity from theft.

2. Ride a rubbish bikeOr one that looks rubbish. Thieves are on the look-out for easy touches, bikes they can steal easily. But they are also on the look out for bikes they can shift on eBay or down the pub or on the street market. Branded mountain bikes are the easiest to sell on.

This can be a genuinely crap bike – rust is your friend – or a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Disguise a good bike with tatty tape on the frame tubes but to go the whole hog you’ve got to disguise the components, too. Could you really bear to take a rasp to your Shimano XTR rear mech?

If your rubbishified bike still has the basic shape and look of a mountain bike, it could still be nickable. One of the best security devices on the market is the drop handlebar. Thieves, on the whole, give these a wide berth. Nobody down the pub wants a touring bike, even if the front and back racks are state of the art.

However, there are some thieves who know what a good road bike is when they see one so the drop handlebar trick isn’t failsafe.

3. Marry your machineTravel light, forget the lock, take your bike with you wherever you go.

This is a very secure option but can limit the places you’ll be welcome in.

A folding bike can increase your chances of slipping under the radar but not everybody appreciates the allure of a grime-encrusted bike, even one that concentinas.

4. Use a lockEven one you can cut with a Leatherman is far, far better than no lock at all. Yes, blindingly obvious, but thieves are, by definition, sneaky. You can’t trust ‘em.

This is a sorry tale, repeated across the land every day: a law abiding cyclist nips into the Post Office “just for a second”, keeps a beady eye on his unlocked bike, turns away for a moment and then, poof, his bike is gone.

Locks aren’t just for long-term parking. Clunk click every trip.

There’s also a good case for locking your bike to an immovable object when it’s stored in a secure place such as your garage or shed. Fit a ground anchor and make the local no-goods sweat to get your prized possessions.

5. Use a good lockThis article shows that a determined, professional thief can breach seemingly impregnable locks. Such thieves are relatively rare. They could get into Fort Knox. There’s not a lot you can do to thwart a tooled up thief with time on his hands and just your bike in view.

Your bog standard bike thief isn’t beefy and equipped with long bolt croppers. He (nicking bikes is a male occupation) is more likely to be in need of a fix, desperate to sell your £400 MTB for a tenner, and will be equipped with basic tools.

This type of thief can be thwarted with almost any lock thicker and stronger than a thin cable.

Nine times out of ten, this would-be bike thief will pass by those bikes locked with meaty chains and u-locks and will attempt to steal those bikes ‘protected’ with flimsy locks. It’s simple to cut a cable lock, even those that look tough. Some have thick plastic sheathes that magnify the thin cable within. It’s very easy to open a combination lock, even without tools.

A cheap u-lock is tougher to crack than a thin cable lock. But even some expensive u-locks can be smashed in seconds with a small bottle jack. This is a specialist tool. A five inch hydraulic jack can be extended to ten inches, smashing almost any u-lock after just a few pumps, if there’s wriggle room, that is.

6. Be time sensitiveIt pays to be security aware at all times but, if you live in a university town, there are certain times of the year when the bike theft figures go into overdrive. Basically, whenever there’s a new influx of students, there’s a ready market for ‘secondhand’ bikes.

At these times of the year, bikes are stolen hand over fist and it’s best to employ ultra secure methods of securing your bike. If you usually use two u-locks, a motorcycle chain and a Doberman, consider upgrading to three u-locks, another chain, two dogs and a security guard.

There’s a reason why Sheffield stands are hoops. Street furniture posts may look secure but could a thief hoist a locked bike over the top of the post? If they could, they will.

8. Lock everythingSpecialist thieves thwarted by good locks attached down low and with few vulnerabilities can strip a bike of its components instead. Specialist tools required? An Allen key and wire cutters. That’s for half-inching the handlebars and stuff, for the wheels and seatpost all that’s generally needed is a palm.

Components attached with quick releases risk going walkies quickly. Consider switching to Pinhead skewers and seatpost retention devices. These ship with a special key which opens all the devices.

9. Add on the extrasPost-coding your frame or fitting a machine-readable chip the size of a grain of rice adds just a modicum of security but, remember, all you’re trying to do is buy a few seconds and, as Tesco says, every little helps.

10. Look out for white van manHe’s not only a menace to cyclists when driving, he could be watching your bike. Pro thieves often track their targets beforehand. Your bike is especially vulnerable in the two minutes after you first lock it. A team of thieves will employ a target tracker as well as a cutter and get-away driver.

Want to have a laugh at a thief’s expense? Watch this motorcycle nabber falling from a moving van to the accompaniment of the Benny Hill chase music:

FILL THAT LOCKA up-to-date u-lock with a 16mm thick shackle will be pick-proof, Bic-proof and largely impervious to hammer strikes, chisel attacks, pipe bending and cutting by anything other than workshop grinding tools.

But a twenty quid bottle jack, easily bought on eBay, can breach many u-locks in seconds. I know, I’ve seen it done.

The small bottle jacks – known as ‘stubbies’ – are specialist tools, not much use for jacking up cars. A stubby slips into a coat pocket and can ‘open’ a u-lock almost as quickly as the key holder.

But the thief needs wriggle room. A bottle jack can only be used on a u-lock where there’s space to squeeze in. Fill that space with frame, spokes and security post and the bike thief will choose to breach a u-lock with space. ‘Bad Bones’ slip on to u-locks to fill space but at only 2.5mm thick they can be cut.

To work, a bottle jack must be horizontal and a thief will search to find a shackle lock at the perfect angle. It was instructive to watch our friendly ‘bike thieves’ at work: Mr Y could open shackles with his bottle jack when the conditions were right, but had to give up when the shackle couldn’t be jiggled into an accessible position.

“There, that’s how to lock a bike,” said a frustrated Mr Y.

So, use a short u-lock, fit it around the bottom bracket, not the top tube. Make it a tight fit every time.

Look for bike racks that make such locking tactics easier. The best Sheffield stands are those in an ‘M’ shape not a ‘U’. Lock at the lowest point of the ‘M’.

If you prefer chains, coil them in and out of your bike and the post, leaving little or no slack. A tight chain is harder to attack.

PUBLIC APATHYYouTube has lots of bike theft videos which demonstrate a variety of lock breaching techniques. There’s a famous one from the Neistat Brothers of New York City. They used a hack-saw, bolt cutters and – hilariously - an angle grinder to snatch their own bike in broad daylight: passers-by didn’t bat an eye-lid, allowing even slow and cumbersome lock-breaking techniques to be used at will.

This video has had 568,600 views.

TOOLS OF THE TRADECheap locks can be breached by cheap tools, as demonstrated on this YouTube video of ‘Frits’, a Dutch bike thief:

Frits was interviewed for Dutch TV. He’s now renounced his former occupation and gave this advice to viewers:

“Buy a more expensive bike lock.”

Expensive bike locks tend to be breached with more expensive tools. The bigger bolt cutters can cost hundreds of pounds and have expensive jaws which need replacing every 30 ‘cuts’ or so. Such specialist equipment is a big investment – or can be stolen from building sites.

Some thieves operate in pairs, with one as the breaker, the other the look-out. Motorcycle thieves operate out of (stolen?) white vans and sometimes also turn their attention to bicycles, especially high-value ones. A white van can carry all sorts of heavy cutting equipment and is also useful as a shield to work behind.

THE THIEVESMr X and his mate Mr Y are lovely blokes. They aren’t thieves, but they’re concerned about motorcycle and bicycle security. Or lack thereof.

They’re both meaty and can breach hardened steel chains in just over half a minute.

I bought a box of locks and gave them to the lads. None of the locks lasted very long in their hands. The tabulated results are here.

In fact, on the some of the locks, it took longer to get past the pesky zip-ties on the packaging than breach the actual lock.

To breach the tough, expensive chains Mr X and Mr Y had to work at it, even with the 42” bolt cutters. When the chains snapped after 40+ seconds of hard effort the links shot apart in an explosive fashion.

It’s a brutal technique, hard to disguise. To deaden the sound of the ‘explosion’, and hide some of the tool, some pro thieves use a thick blanket.

BIKE THEFT HURTS CYCLINGCycle theft is a serious disincentive to cycling. According to a French study, only 25 per cent of cyclists re-buy a new bike after a theft, and of these 10 per cent buy a cheaper bike than they had before (20 per cent cheaper on average). A further 23 per cent won’t return to cycling at all.

The study reports that 20 per cent of stolen bikes were not protected with any form of locks. 90 per cent of those which were locked were secured with an easily cut lock. The moral is clear.

Sold Secure was established in 1992 by Northumbria and Essex Police with the backing of the Home Office and is now an ISO-quality accredited test house for all manner of locks and ground anchors. It’s a not-for-profit company owned by the Master Locksmiths Association and charges lock companies a four figure sum for the testing of each lock. Each lock also attracts an annual fee payable to Sold Secure.

Sold Secure says its lock breaching methods are those commonly in use by thieves, with the information provided by police and insurers.

Sold Secure’s Gold standard is awarded to those bicycle locks which can resist a combination of tools for five minutes per attack. I was able to breach a Gold certified product with 36” bolt croppers in ten seconds.

Sold Secure says its tools are those that “a typical burglar would carry.”

Following complaints about Sold Secure’s testing regime, Trading Standards officers are currently testing a batch of motorcycle locks in an attempt to see whether they can be breached quicker than claimed by Sold Secure.

A Trading Standards spokesman said the “results of the screen testing will determine whether any further formal tests are carried out.”

The spokesman said any formal investigation would look at “whether the product is being manufactured to the same standard it was when the approval was given.”

Motorcycle security products have to pass the tougher Thatcham standards, and without accreditation many insurers won’t insure the motorbikes being locked.

Another standards body you may see on some locks is ART of the Netherlands. Sweden has its locks accredited by SSF and Germany uses VDS.

Lock manufacturers which export worldwide have to pay the testing bodies in each country. However, the better known lock companies have in-house testing rigs and break-in regimes that far exceed the subjective testing of some of the standards bodies, a fact that rankles with these manufacturers, forced to pay for ‘independent testing’ in order to sell into a market.

This article first appeared in ‘Cycle’ (Feb-Mar 2008) , the CTC magazine. Subscribe to the weekly newsletter from the CTC via here. CTC offers Cyclecover Insurance. Tel: 0870 873 0067.

THE BOTTOM LINE:I now have a box full of cut and bent locks, a lesson in what can be done to even quite expensive bits of security equipment. Having seen lock smashers at work am I worried to leave my bike anywhere? Not really. Pro thieves are rare, it’s the opportunist thief we have to be most wary of.

However, even the pro thief can be shunted to somebody else’s bike if you use some of the tactics outlined above. What locks do I recommend? Anything is better than nothing but the locks I use are a Kryptonite Fahgettaboudit chain (this locks three kids’ bikes at their school each day) and, for me, two Kryptonite Evolution Minis. These are small enough to lock a frame to a stand (near the BB, remember), with the second one filling in any gaps so there’s no room for a stubbie bottle jack. Another tactic - popular with couriers - is to lock with a chain and a u-lock. Even pro thieves may only be carrying one type of tool, and will be flummoxed by two different styles of locks.

I also have a heavy Almax chain.ShareThis« Fat Face: The Big Fat GuideVegan race team signs with bamboo bike maker »

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 14th, 2008 at 9:32 pm and is filed under Bike security, Other YouTube vids. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.19 Responses to “Lock it or lose it”

A few years back, there was a spate of thefts in London where the thieves would drive slowly up the road before dawn, and take an angle grinder to the post of every parking meter they passed. With parking charges of £1 for 5 minutes, and the meters only emptied every few days, this had a pretty good rate of return.

I mention this because even if you’ve secured your bike with a great lock that’s hard to attack, if it’s in a remote, out-of-sight location, it’s still not secure. A 9″ petrol-driven angle grinder will go through most street furniture (which is generally just mild steel tubing) in less than ten seconds.

Thanks. It is worrying, sort of. 99 percent of the time your bike will be sure with a decent lock cos most crims are low-level opportunists. Pro thieves are rare, but ruthlessly efficient. 3. Velorution, London's urban cycle store Says: February 15th, 2008 at 10:11 pm

[…] Reid has an excellent article, exposing this scandal: Sold Secure says its lock breaching methods are those commonly in use by […] 4. Bicycle Security.. « Comfortable, useful , interesting bikes Says: February 16th, 2008 at 5:22 am

[…] Lock It Or Lose It […] 5. ‘Lock It’ - but what with? « CyclingEdinburgh.info Says: February 16th, 2008 at 10:54 am

[…] from Quickrelease.tv Lock it or lose itFat Face: The Big Fat GuideCycling is fashionable: should we be […] 6. Pro bike thieves on how to lock your bicycle - Cult of the Bicycle Says: February 18th, 2008 at 3:06 pm

[…] on how to lock your bicycle Carlton Reid talked to a couple of professional bicycle thieves in this excellent article about how to make your bike less attractive to potential bicycle thieves. Carlton tried a brute […] 7. BikeDenver.org » Love your bike? Lock it up. Says: February 18th, 2008 at 4:29 pm

[…] could be worse than having your bike stolen? This article out of the UK tells you everything you need to know about securing your bike. It’s sobering to […] 8. cyclove » Lock It or Lose It Says: February 18th, 2008 at 9:32 pm

[…] on from last week’s cycle security video, I came across this article by Carlton Reid (BikeBiz) jam packed with useful information which could help you keep your […] 9. Maple Ridge Cycle » News archives » How to lock your bicycle Says: February 18th, 2008 at 10:03 pm

[…] out this entry on quickrelease.tv for some good advice on how to lock up your bike. It’s well worth the read and shows you the ins-and-outs of proper bike […] 10. Lock Smashers » BikeHacks Says: February 19th, 2008 at 5:11 am

[…] seemingly pretty good advice here in this post on quickrelease.tv. Although I’d agree with many of the points, the number one security tactic to avoid having […] 12. Dan Kaufman Says: February 19th, 2008 at 5:24 pm

Mr. Reid, how about a video version of this great article? Perhaps along the lines of this NYC video: http://www.streetfilms.org/archives/hal-grades-your-bike-locking/ 13. Carlton Reid Says: February 19th, 2008 at 9:02 pm

Hey, Mr Kaufman. Thanks for that Hal video link. It’s funny. For those that have yet to visit, it’s a US bike mechanic dissing the poor locking techniques of fellow New Yorkers.

I thought about videoing the lock breaking of Mr X and Mr Y but I had enough on my plate taking notes and taking pix. Adding video to the mix would have finished me off.

Anyway, there are naughty videos out in YouTubeLand which already show how it’s done. 14. Richard Darby Says: February 21st, 2008 at 2:33 pm

Guess that I’m lucky to live in a medium size city where thieves may not be as well versed in criminal technique as their big city peers. In more than sixty years of full time commuting to school and work I’ve only had one bike stolen. Although I’ve owned at least 100 bikes in my life, I still miss that brown Bridgestone Sirius. 15. Scott Says: February 22nd, 2008 at 12:21 am

One point missed (especially for High end bikes) is insure it. That way if those sneaky bike thiefs steel it you can afford a new one. 16. Carlton Reid Says: February 22nd, 2008 at 3:47 pm

Thanks for your comment Scott…but the point wasn’t missed. There’s a plug for some UK specific insurance, from the CTC.

I agree, insurance is essential. But with multiple bikes it can get very expensive. 17. Quickrelease.tv » Blog Archive » Death Row Scot warns bike thief Says: February 23rd, 2008 at 4:18 pm

[…] because if I see you riding it…” When he gets a replacement bike Ritchey needs to read this bike security article because his locking technique is a bit rusty: “I had the wheel padlocked to the frame but had […] 18. How To Lock Your Bike | Commute by Bike Says: February 27th, 2008 at 3:39 am

[…] great (definitive?) article on the best ways to lock your bike and foil bike thieves, called “Lock It or Lose It.” The videos showing public apathy are especially […] 19. Lock your bike! « /var/blog/messages Says: February 27th, 2008 at 12:19 pm

[…] your bike! 27 02 2008 This article over at quickrelease.tv is probably the definitive guide to securing your bike. Although, as they […]